Radio Football Commentators and reporters (2014/15 season)

The Celtic nations will be involved in the Europa League on Thursday (although you wouldn't know that if you searched the fixtures for this week via the BBC's Digital text service), so I thought I'd start the thread for the 2014/15 season.

There's been no mention as to whether Radio Wales will provide commentary of Airbus UK's game on Thursday (Twenty20 is due to be covered), but I do see that Bangor City's game in Iceland will be on community station Radio Bangor.

Also, Radio Cymru's commentator Dylan Griffiths is now on that them there Twitter thing, he's @DylLlanfair.

Thanks Ian for a creating a new Radio Football Commentators and Reporters thread for the new season. This is something I always do as my first post in the new thread each season, so as a means of resource I'm posting a full and updated list of the previous threads detailing radio football coverage from past seasons:

I have a couple of hopes for our two main national radio stations that cover football in the coming season.

BBC Radio 5 Live: Now that they've finally bit the bullet and have done a number of off-tube commentaries on World Cup games in Brazil, which is something they were previously very reluctant ever to do, I'd like to see them become a bit more open to the concept of off-tubing. Now I'm not arguing that they should do any more off-tube commentaries in the future, but having off-tube reports on games involving British teams that they currently don't cover because of the expense involved in having an on-site presence would be welcome. In recent seasons, often 5 Live would not provide progress reports on away Europa League ties for English league clubs, most European games for Scottish league clubs and many away World Cup/Euro qualifiers or international friendlies involving the Celtic national teams, presumably due to the travel expenses and/or the rights fees involved. While not the ideal scenario, having Radio 5 Live providing off-tube updates on these games would be a big improvement on just having someone not watching those matches giving the occasional scoreflash as routinely happens at present.

talkSPORT: I'd like to see them keep alive the talkSPORT Extra platform they launched to air commentaries on the eight simultaneous final World Cup group phase games they couldn't accommodate on their main platforms, with this not just being a secondary stream on their website but also being made available on the TuneIn radio app too. I believe that having an alternative stream available on TuneIn could come in useful during the new season and I'd like to see it used for opt-outs whenever possible. For a start, the weekly Bundesliga commentaries their talkSPORT Live international service produces could be housed on talkSPORT Extra as well as Bundesliga Radio English, and after they trialled doing a couple of Real Madrid commentaries on the main station last year, I wonder if it would be viable to come to a similar arrangement to produce weekly La Liga commentaries for this platform too. They've also done online opt-out commentaries on Premiership rugby union games (which haven't always been broadcast online seamlessly) in past seasons and these could be housed on talkSPORT Extra in the future, with them perhaps doing them a bit more often. This would be good ahead of next year's Rugby World Cup, where should they secure rights I'd imagine an alternative platform would be necessary for matches that clash with their live football coverage.

All of these games will kick-off in talkSPORT's usual timeslots of 5.30pm on Saturdays and 1.30pm on Sundays unless stated.

Notes:
*Tottenham v QPR has been moved to a 1.30pm kick-off time on Sunday 24 August due to Tottenham's Europa League game on the preceding Thursday. It wouldn't surprise me if this game was picked by talkSPORT rather than the TV selection of Hull v Stoke, which going by last season's precedent may then default over to Radio 5 Live.

**Everton v Crystal Palace has been moved to a 4pm kick-off time on Sunday 21 September due to Everton's Europa League game on the preceding Thursday. With the televised 4pm game of Manchester City v Chelsea almost certain to be Radio 5 Live's pick, going by last season's precedent from League Cup Final day there is a good chance that the non-televised game in that timeslot may default over to talkSPORT.

***The games I have noted with three stars both involve clubs that are participating in the Champions League, so in the event of those teams playing on Wednesday in the preceding weeks then these games may be moved to another day and/or kick-off time.

****Sunderland v Everton has been moved to a 1.30pm kick-off time on Sunday 9 November due to Everton's Europa League game on the preceding Thursday. As above, talkSPORT could opt for it over the televised game in that timeslot of West Brom v Newcastle and whichever match they don't pick may be on Radio 5 Live.

*****Southampton v Manchester City on Sunday 30 November is scheduled for the usual kick-off time of 1.30pm at present, but would move to a 2.05pm kick-off in the event of Arsenal being in the Europa League and playing on the preceding Thursday. In which case, West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal would move from taking place on Saturday 29 November at 12.45pm to the following day with a 12noon kick-off.

The television picks have produced some strong live commentaries for talkSPORT, with almost all of their games involving at least one of the top six or seven teams in the Premier League including a North London derby, Arsenal's matches with Everton, Chelsea and Manchester United, Tottenham v Liverpool, Manchester United v Everton and possibly the Manchester derby. talkSPORT will be hoping Manchester City will be playing their Champions League game on the Tuesday during the last week of October!

All of these games will kick-off in talkSPORT's usual timeslots of 5.30pm on Saturdays and 1.30pm on Sundays unless stated.

Notes:
*Tottenham v QPR has been moved to a 1.30pm kick-off time on Sunday 24 August due to Tottenham's Europa League game on the preceding Thursday. It wouldn't surprise me if this game was picked by talkSPORT rather than the TV selection of Hull v Stoke, which going by last season's precedent may then default over to Radio 5 Live.

**Everton v Crystal Palace has been moved to a 4pm kick-off time on Sunday 21 September due to Everton's Europa League game on the preceding Thursday. With the televised 4pm game of Manchester City v Chelsea almost certain to be Radio 5 Live's pick, going by last season's precedent from League Cup Final day there is a good chance that the non-televised game in that timeslot may default over to talkSPORT.

***The games I have noted with three stars both involve clubs that are participating in the Champions League, so in the event of those teams playing on Wednesday in the preceding weeks then these games may be moved to another day and/or kick-off time.

****Sunderland v Everton has been moved to a 1.30pm kick-off time on Sunday 9 November due to Everton's Europa League game on the preceding Thursday. As above, talkSPORT could opt for it over the televised game in that timeslot of West Brom v Newcastle and whichever match they don't pick may be on Radio 5 Live.

*****Southampton v Manchester City on Sunday 30 November is scheduled for the usual kick-off time of 1.30pm at present, but would move to a 2.05pm kick-off in the event of Arsenal being in the Europa League and playing on the preceding Thursday. In which case, West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal would move from taking place on Saturday 29 November at 12.45pm to the following day with a 12noon kick-off.

The television picks have produced some strong live commentaries for talkSPORT, with almost all of their games involving at least one of the top six or seven teams in the Premier League including a North London derby, Arsenal's matches with Everton, Chelsea and Manchester United, Tottenham v Liverpool, Manchester United v Everton and possibly the Manchester derby. talkSPORT will be hoping Manchester City will be playing their Champions League game on the Tuesday during the last week of October!

The league cup final weekend last season when TS took the secondary 4 PM premier league game was a one-off wasn't it? there were other times during the season when there were 2 games kicking off at 4 PM on Sunday because of Europa League and TS didn't broadcast the non-5Live game. at the time, we speculated that as these game were often going up against games involving 1 or 2 of the top teams, they decided to stick with their usual programming rather than broadcasting a less attractive fixture. One example I can remember was a Sunday in November last season when 5Live broadcast commentary of Man Utd v Arsenal and the other 4 PM commentary (Swansea v Stoke) wasn't covered by TS even though it is likely they could have done so had they chosen to. understandable decision from TS in that instance from a commercial viewpoint, so I wouldn't necessarily expect TS to hoover up any 4 PM games on clashing Sundays unless they are reasonably attractive fixtures. 5Live rightly took the options when available of covering the secondary 1:30 games instead of their usual discussion format.

The league cup final weekend last season when TS took the secondary 4 PM premier league game was a one-off wasn't it? there were other times during the season when there were 2 games kicking off at 4 PM on Sunday because of Europa League and TS didn't broadcast the non-5Live game. at the time, we speculated that as these game were often going up against games involving 1 or 2 of the top teams, they decided to stick with their usual programming rather than broadcasting a less attractive fixture.

That's right Steve, although I'm think I'm right in saying that League Cup Final day was the last occasion in 2013/14 when there was more than one Premier League game taking place on Sunday at 4pm. The match in question was Aston Villa v Norwich City, not exactly the most attractive of games in itself and it was going head-to-head with a Tottenham fixture. So I think there is a possibility that talkSPORT could do commentary on Everton v Crystal Palace at 4pm on Sunday 21st September should we see the kind of scenarios we saw last season repeated.

Forgive me for diverging into territory perhaps better reserved for the non-football Radio Sports Commentators and Reporters thread, but looking at the weekend dates when talkSPORT won't be doing live Premier League commentaries between August and November, I wonder if these will provide a few opportunities to do Premiership rugby union commentaries on those afternoons instead.

I notice that the first international weekend of the season, Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th September, is also the first weekend of the Aviva Premiership season with the annual Twickenham double header - Saracens v Wasps and London Irish v Harlequins - taking place on the Saturday. As a fan of a lower league club who relies on their Around the Grounds service of a Saturday, personally I'd like it if they provided full commentary on both of those games on talkSPORT Extra with Matchday Live going out as usual on the main station, before second half commentary on the latter game (which is a 4.30pm kick-off) was simulcast on both platforms from about 5.15pm.

But it is the Sundays without live 1.30pm Premier League (or FA Cup) commentaries that provides the biggest gap in the talkSPORT schedule though, the 1-4pm Sunday Exclusive discussions that take their place in their absence can be a bit drab. I'd prefer it if on those occasions they opted to broadcast Premiership rugby union action, most likely the televised match in BT Sport's regular 2pm Sunday kick-off slot, in the absence of live football. Having checked, they should have the option of doing this on each of the five Sundays between August and November when there isn't a Premier League match taking place in their timeslot - all of them fall in Premiership weekends rather than European Rugby Champions Cup ones.

I had considered early round FA Cup matches providing a potentially decent alternative in the absence of Premier League commentaries (given how talkSPORT carried commentary on the MK Dons v AFC Wimbledon FA Cup tie during an international weekend a few seasons back), however First Round weekend is the 8th and 9th November when talkSPORT have Premier League commentaries on both days and Second Round weekend isn't until the 6th and 7th December, which is also a Premier League matchround (this also being the first weekend where the TV picks are yet to be determined).

For the record, talkSPORT didn't carry reports on KR Reykjavik v Celtic or any of the other Champions League qualifiers involving British clubs earlier tonight.

Just as an aside It really is absolute nonsense that the FA Cup first round isn't a week later to co-incide with the blank international weekend. Apparently its OK for league one and two clubs to play league matches then but not cup ties. This would be a key change for any broadcaster attempting to re-launch the FA Cup.

Sam Matterface is listed to be presenting all five editions of Kick Off next week (Danny Kelly has been covering for Mark Saggers on it this week), so any speculation that he'd be leaving talkSPORT after opting to work for ITV at the World Cup was unfounded. I believe this will be the first time he's been on the station since he commentated on the Championship Play-Off Final in late May, although he may have covered a few shows pre-World Cup.

We know Jim Proudfoot is staying on with talkSPORT beyond the World Cup - indeed he's listed to present Sunday Scoreboard over the next two weekends. But it'll be interesting to see how many commentary opportunities he is given in the new season and whether he or Matterface (or a combination of the two) gets to do the biggest games.

It does seem strange to think that not so long ago, Jim Proudfoot commentated on every Champions League game and Nigel Pearson commentated on almost every Premier League game (Ian Danter covered for him on a couple of occasions when he was ill) that aired live on talkSPORT between 2007 and 2009, while BBC Radio 5 Live had a 15/16 person strong football commentary roster. Over the last 12 months, talkSPORT have used 11 different football commentators - and that's before you get to their talkSPORT Live service - while following the retirement of Mike Ingham, Radio 5 Live now only have 6 or 7 football commentators who regularly work for them. How times change.

5Live will have commentary of Blackburn/Cardiff on Friday 8th August. I hope this is a sign of things to come but sadly, I'm guessing it's just because there's little or no live sport on and the PL doesn't start until the week after

5Live will have commentary of Blackburn/Cardiff on Friday 8th August. I hope this is a sign of things to come but sadly, I'm guessing it's just because there's little or no live sport on and the PL doesn't start until the week after

I suspected this might happen, seeing as there's no Premier League games taking place that weekend they can't exactly do their usual Premier League preview. The decision to make Mark Chapman their new Friday night host in lieu of Dan Walker's move to their weekday daytime schedule suggests it'll be more of the same on Fridays once the PL season is underway. But it's right to put commentary on the opening game of the Football League season on Radio 5 Live and it allows them to continue their Friday night Super League coverage on Radio 5 Live Sports Extra.

One thing I haven't seen much discussion about is the decision to appoint Jason Roberts as the new host of "big football nights" on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra. They haven't really had a regular presenter on 5LSE's football coverage since the mid 2000s when BBC Hereford & Worcester breakfast show host Howard Bentham anchored most of the live games on that station, despite having no involvement on 5 Live. Towards the end of the decade, it became a case of the main commentators doubling up as hosts of any Sports Extra Football broadcasts and over the past two seasons they've employed a new policy of mostly simulcasting the home team's BBC Local Radio commentary when broadcasting Football League games and early round FA Cup ties.

I hope the decision to have Jason Roberts hosting football coverage on Sports Extra doesn't spell the end of BBC Local Radio simulcasts on there, which personally I have really enjoyed over the past few years (it's always nice to hear coverage that wouldn't normally be available to you). But given that from 2014/15 onwards Radio 5 Live will be employing the standard one commentator, one co-commentator set-up on all but the very biggest games, seeing as they have a six or seven person commentary roster (Alan Green, John Murray, Conor McNamara, Ian Dennis, Alistair Bruce-Ball, Ian Brown and perhaps Jonathan Overend?) yet they will only be covering four Premier League games per weekend tops, it wouldn't surprise me if the station's management feel that producing their own commentaries on at least some of the two or three Championship games they can cover per weekend (those Friday night games plus the Saturday 12.15pm and 3pm double headers) is a good way of giving those contracted guys lower down their pecking order - particularly Bruce-Ball and Brown - the chance to commentate on games on a regular basis rather than just report on them. If this is going to happen, then I hope it isn't a universal policy and we still get some BBC Local Radio simulcasts - perhaps the local stations in question could even do joint broadcasts with Jason Roberts having a role in the coverage across both stations, or maybe he'll just be a studio-based links man.

The BBC normally do a pre-season new football season launch which goes onto the BBC Media Centre site with a press release, probably after the Commonwealth Games I imagine this year which might give more details. I'll keep an eye out for it.